


"Stick" Together

by Vibranch



Series: Request Fics [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Human Ladder, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Paopu Fruit Sharing, Reunions, but just a lil' angst, post ReMind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24656764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vibranch/pseuds/Vibranch
Summary: Sora is safe and home again after his sudden disappearance from the end of the Keyblade War against Xehanort. And now that Sora's back, he's ready to share the Paopu Fruit his two best friends in all the Worlds.
Relationships: Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), SoRiKai
Series: Request Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1787962
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	"Stick" Together

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a request for "Tabula Smaragdina"  
> Also this was written before ReMind came out, but I don't think this contradicts anything.

“Where… Am I?” The world around Sora was undefined. His vision was blurred to the point that he could only stare uselessly at the mess of colors and shapes in front of him with unseeing eyes.

“Sora!” a voice called out his name. _Was that Kairi?_ Sora wondered.

“Sora!” another voice shouted. This one was unmistakably Riku’s.

“Where am I?” Sora repeated. His head felt heavy and there was a fog in his mind that made it difficult to think

“Your safe,” Kairi said.

“Your home,” Riku added.

“Safe? Home?” In a weird way, Sora felt like he need some sort of proof before he could honestly believe he still existed. It felt as though a strong breeze could blow by at any moment and scatter him into pieces, as if made from dandelion spores.

Riku and Kairi looked at each other in worry. It had taken them everything they had, but they finally got Sora back in one piece. But as they looked at him, they could barely see their energetic, optimistic friend in this exhausted boy in front of them.

“Don’t you remember, Sora,” Kairi said, placing a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “You sacrificed yourself to save me.”

“You used the power of awakening to save Kairi. But it held a heavy cost, we almost lost you.” Riku said placing his own on Sora’s other shoulder.

Their touch grounded Sora. Blinking a few more times, the world around him suddenly became clear.

Sora suddenly felt the ocean waves on his legs. Only realizing now just how numb he’d been. Looking down, he saw that he was kneeling in the shallows of one of the beaches of his home world.

He could barely believe it. He really was home! Back on his Islands. No, not his Islands. It was _their_ Islands. He couldn’t imagine ever wanting to come home if Kairi and Riku weren’t there. That was why he gave everything to save Kairi, why he wouldn’t return home until he found Riku. And, he realized, that was why they had nearly done the same to save him.

***

It had taken awhile, but Sora was finally starting to feel like he’d gotten his strength back. He was back to running and jumping through the island like he once did. Having just completed the old racecourse that he and Riku had competed on countless times, he stopped when he saw Riku and Kairi sitting together by the Paopu tree.

“Hey guys, what’re you up to?” He said as he ran to meet them.

They both turned around quickly at the sound of his voice. “Hey, Sora!” Riku greeted, “We were just about to come looking for you,” he said, tossing Sora a star shaped fruit.

Sora looked at the item in his hand. “A Paopu? What are you guys doing with one of these?”

Kairi nudged Riku gently with her elbow as she spoke. “Riku was getting jealous that we had all the fun of sharing one together. So, I figured we’d all share one between the three of us.”

Sora looked down at the fruit in his hands. Unlike the Paopu he and Kairi shared, this one was little on the small side. Sora shook his head. “This won’t work at all. C’mon guys, look at it. This thing is tiny!”

“What are we supposed to do?” Riku asked. “You’ve been gone for awhile, Sora. The fruits aren’t in season anymore and that was the biggest one on the tree.”

“There are other trees on this World!” Sora answered. “We’ve gotta find one that’s proportionate to our feelings of each other.” Sora said, tossing the small Paopu into the ocean.

Riku sighed, but couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “I guess I had nothing better to do today.”

“I didn’t even think you knew what the word ‘proportionate’ meant,” Kairi said, giggling at the idea.

“…Donald and Goofy taught it to me,” Sora mumbled to himself. But before Riku or Kairi could ask him what he said, Sora spoke in a louder voice, “Well, let’s go! Time to find a better Paopu tree!”

***

“Yeah, I don’t think you can climb this tree,” Riku said.

Sora dusted himself off the ground. He hated to admit it, but maybe he wasn’t at One-Hundred percent yet after all. He’d never had this much trouble climbing trees.

“You’re going to hurt yourself at this rate.” Kairi added. They both looked a bit worried. Perhaps they also hadn’t realized he wasn’t back to being the same old Sora yet either, or maybe they had a feeling that this was going to happen. Sora couldn’t decide which felt worse.

But Sora wasn’t about to give up. On this tree hung the largest Paopu the three of them had ever seen. But unlike the one they hung out at all the time, this one was strong and stood upright.

“Don’t worry guys, I’ll get it eventually.” Sora said, rubbing his hands together as he prepared to have another go at it. “I just need to come at it with some gusto, or maybe—”

“Sora, stop.” Riku said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Sora looked over at his friend, then quickly towards Kairi as she gripped his hand with her own.

“You don’t have to do everything on your own,” she said. “The whole point of us wanting to share a paopu with you is because we both want to be a part of your life and share in both the good and the bad.” Kairi gave his hand a squeeze, and Sora could feel as Riku moved his hand into Sora’s as well.

“Yeah, and besides,” Riku began, “We just need to work smarter, not harder, to get that Paopu.”

“Oh yeah?” Sora raised an eyebrow at Riku. “And how do you intend to get it, Mr. Smarty Pants?”

Riku smiled at the two of them. “You guys remember how we used to climb over fences as kids?”

Kairi had to stop herself before she started laughing. “Are you talking about the human ladder?!”

Riku’s grin grew wider. “What else? With the three of us combined we should be able to just barely reach it.” Riku stepped back from the tree and measured with his fingers Sora and Kairi’s height. “Yep, we should be able to do it. I’ll be the base, Kairi you be the middle.”

“I think I should be the middle.” Sora said. “I weigh more than Kairi!”

Riku and Kairi looked at Sora. “You’re still pretty emaciated looking, Sora.” Kairi said. “I’m pretty sure I weigh more than you do, right now.”

“Poddledomp,” Sora said.

“What?”

“I can make up words too, you know.” He said, pursing his lips and crossing his arms like a pouting child.

Riku pressed a hand against his forehead. “No Sora, emaciated is a real word. It means you haven’t regained all your strength yet. You’re still really skinny.”

Kairi laughed at the conversation before speaking. “And besides, looking for trees was your idea, Sora. So, we’d like you to be the one to pick the Paopu.”

While wobbly, the human ladder had worked and the three tore the Paopu into three pieces. Sora held his piece of the Paopu in front of himself as he looked to his friends. “Alright, on three everybody!

Kairi and Riku nodded to him, holding their own pieces before themselves as well.

“One…” Sora drawled, stretching the word out until it seemed unbearable.

Following Sora's lead, Riku began to drawl out, “Two…”

“Oh my gosh, really you two?” Kairi said. Neither had a chance to say anything before she cheerfully exclaimed, “Three!”

Almost immediately the three of them started wolfing down their thirds of the Paopu.

When he’d finished, Sora looked at Kairi. He was taken aback by her beauty. Had her hair always been as red as a sunset? And Riku, there was a strength and handsomeness to him that Sora had never notice before. He wondered just how long Riku’s eyes had shimmered like a dew-covered grass field.

Sora couldn’t help but look down at his sticky, juice covered fingers.

“Sora, you okay?” Kairi asked.

“Y-yeah…” Sora said, not looking up. “I’m just scared.”

“Scared of what?” Riku asked, shuffling closer to him.

Sora pressed his fingers and thumb together, letting them stick together for a moment before separating them again. “Is this real? I’m really worried this has all been a dream or something. What if I wake up and I’m back wherever you guys found me?”

Riku took Sora’s hand, not minding the slightest how sticky it was. After all, his were just as sticky. “Don’t worry, Sora. This is real. We’re together again.”

Kairi took his other hand. “We’ll be a part of each other’s lives forever. If something happens to one of us the other two will be here to drag them back.”

“Yeah,” Sora said, feeling a little more at ease. “No more leaving one behind or hiding from the other two.

They smiled and gripped his hand tighter as they nodded.

“The three of us have to _stick_ together.”

**Author's Note:**

> I asked for requests on a Discord server I'm on and one of the users there requested some SoRiKai. To help me narrow down where I was going with this, we hit the random trope button on TV Tropes. He got and accepted "Human Ladder" as something to appear in here.  
> I'm personally more of a Sokai fan. So it was fun to try and write something outside of what I normally spend hours day-dreaming ideas about for someone else. It was an interesting challenge to try and make sure all three of the characters were interacting proportionately. If I'm writing for myself, I'm definetly under the mindset of "two's company, three's a crowd." Because having conversations with groups of people is something I struggle to feel confident doing!
> 
> Anyway I hope you all have enjoyed this! If you did, I hope you'll let me know by leaving a comment or kudo, if you'd be so kind


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